A Roman Catholic priest with a history of sexually abusing children pleaded
guilty Monday of receiving child pornography at a Franklin County home for
troubled priests.

The Rev. David J. Malsch, 66, admitted that in October 2003 he got child
pornography images at the RECON facility on Vondera Drive in Robertsville. He
also admitted forwarding child porn from the home to a "pen pal" in
Pennsylvania.

RECON, also known as Wounded Brothers, is where a Nevada priest, Mark Roberts,
was sentenced to serve a term for his 2003 child molestation conviction.

Another resident is Gerald Chumik, a Franciscan monk who has been a fugitive
since 1990 from Canada, where he faces charges of gross indecency with a minor.
A victims' support group, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, has
called for Roberts to leave, noting that he is now living just 20 minutes from
one of his victims.

David Clohessy, national director of SNAP, said Wounded Brothers is too lax for
someone with Malsch's record. "This is what happens when priests oversee other
abusive priests in a church-run secretive environment," Clohessy complained.

"This is why men like Malsch belong behind bars and not at a church-run
retreat-style facility."

No spokeswoman for Wounded Brothers could be reached Monday. Mark Matousek, its
director, described the place in 2002 interview as "a halfway house, mainly for
people who have exhausted treatment options and are here for a safe residence."

Jamie Allman, a spokesman for the St. Louis Archdiocese, said Monday that
Archbishop Raymond Burke met two weeks ago with Matousek and the Rev. Bertin
Miller, who run Wounded Brothers.

Burke expressed "general concerns about security and oversight at that
facility," Allman said.

The fact that Malsch admitted receiving and sending child pornography from
there "is enough to raise some red flags about how well he was being
monitored," Allman said. That is particularly true in "light of the fact that
the conviction that brought him here involved supplying pornographic tapes to
minors," Allman said.

Allman noted that the facility is run by a Catholic religious order, the
Franciscans, not by the archdiocese.

"This is a serious matter, and whether or not we have technical control over
what happens there, this facility is in our archdiocese, and we want our
feelings known," he said.

In October 2003 federal agents with a warrant found "28 photographs of child
pornography or erotica" in Malsch's room, according to the plea agreement.

Said U.S. Attorney Jim Martin, "Clearly, the Wounded Brothers facility failed
at preventing this priest from committing crimes and deplorable conduct, and so
we have taken the steps necessary to make sure he's put behind bars and has no
access to children or pornography."

Malsch faces a minimum term of five years in prison, prosecutors said. U.S.
District Judge Carol Jackson set sentencing for June 10.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Carrie Costantin said agents tracked Malsch after a
raid in California turned up child porn and letters from Malsch thanking
another man for sending it to him.

In 1993, Malsch pleaded guilty in Wisconsin of child enticement for an incident
in which he was accused of sexually assaulting a boy at a motel. He was
sentenced to eight years on probation.

In 2001, Malsch returned to prison for violating probation. A Wisconsin judge
found that he was a sexually violent person and civilly committed him to RECON.

A year later, after a Wisconsin newspaper revealed that Malsch had moved from
parish to parish after allegations of sexual abuse dating to as early as 1984,
Bishop Raphael Fliss of Superior, Wis., apologized for failing to thoroughly
investigate Malsch.

In 2003, Malsch admitted to Wisconsin officials that he had molested three
minors in "six sex-offending incidents," federal prosecutors here said in court
papers.